Competent Soldier
by The Carrot
Summary: People change... and she notices just how he has. SxJ


Disclaimer: Don't own Flashpoint.

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It wasn't hard to tell Sam was still a soldier.

It showed in everything he did.

How he sat after such a long day that even Ed and Greg were slouching in their chairs; Sam would be stiff backed with an air around him that told others he was ready for another 32 hour shift and six more hot calls.

It showed in how his fingers leisurely brushed his side arm on his leg or on their rare days off, his jeans where it was normally attached before sliding casually into his pocket.

His unaffected stare after each 'Scorpio' order Ed gives him.

The signs were there every time he cleaned his rifle at work and in the startling empty apartment he went home to everyday. Scare furniture, no pictures, always making sure there was no food that wouldn't last in his cupboards so that if was to be suddenly called away or if he never comes home it would be no work to anybody.

How he takes his frustrations out on the punching bag in the gym.

When he knows who's behind him without turning around, sufficiently scaring the crap out of Spike when the techie tries to sneak up behind him.

It was how he learned how to be a better swimming, coming to work several days a week smelling like chlorine after the call with the cop-turned-wife-beater and he realized his lack of skill set in the water.

But it's extremely noticeable every time Greg tried to get him to open up and talk to one of them and Sam shuts down further then before until the older man stops trying, heaving a heavy sigh as the blonde leaves the room.

She knows, in those moments; that Sam still the hardened competent solder he once was.

However there's things that Jules notices about him that, maybe, she thinks, he's not to far off from being a regular person again.

It's the twinkle in his eye every time Spike challenges him to a video game war or the look of relaxation on his face as he finally sits down long enough to finish the chapter in whatever, mammoth sized, book he's reading now.

She hears it in his laugh when she pokes him in the stomach after another one of Shelly's large dinners and Jules can't help but make fun of him because he's managed to clear away more food then Lou.

They can all see his infinite patience, sitting in the conference room on a slow Saturday night as Ed tries vainly to figure out how Sam beat him in chess… for the eighteenth time.

It's how he gives piggy back rides to Wordy's girls, carrying two at once and spinning them around until they fall backwards into a pile of freshly raked leaves laughing loudly.

She sees him changing when there's a suicidal boy threatening the man who sent his brother off to war only to have his brother die. The boy fights and shouts that his brother didn't deserve to die and he was only trying to help people and that's all he's trying to do now. She watched shocked as Sam snapped at him, pointing out, not so kindly, that the only persons he's helping by doing this is himself. Tells him that if he really want to help people then to find blood clinic and give away all his blood, because if he continued on this path then he's be forced to shoot him and it was a waste of valuable resources.

To say she and the others had been shocked was an understatement, Greg had been two seconds away from telling Sam to stand the bloody hell down when the boy lowered the gun, looked up and Sam and asked him to drive him to school because he had a biology test. Even Ed had dropped his jaw in shock. The boy went on to say how he wanted to be a doctor, and how his brother wanted him to do that and help people.

She had watched Sam holster his gun, stroll over to the boy, take his gun away and drag him by the scruff of the neck to a Suburban.

It was two hours later that Sam shuffled back into the SRU head quarters, a little more tired looking then before, and tells Greg that he took the kid to school then to Luria. Jules can't help the laugh as she remembers the look on her team mates faces when Sam also mentions to them that the kid passed his Biology test with flying colours.

But most of all, Jules can tell the soldier in Sam is starting to fade when he leans over her bedside, clutching her clammy hand in his so tightly she can feel the relief coming off him in waves even thought she's out cold, and it's the tears falling down his cheeks that makes her realize how much he's changed.

And the irresistible urge she has to brush them away can't help but make her think that maybe he's changed her too.

For the better though.

It's an unavoidable fact of life.

People change.

The two of them were no exception.

And Jules is glad for that.

Wrote this for a friend of mine at work who requested it, Hope you liked it. :D


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